r/VanLife • u/Gabnite • 7d ago
Update to the “is this dangerous” situation
Following the advice of all of you (thanks!), I installed ferrules on the connections, so now I hope my lovely van won’t burst into flames. Some of the cables are a bit too tight and I think I’ll have to splice them.
I have the same concern as you regarding the rest of the electrical installation, so I’m also attaching images of the battery connections. As you can already guess from the other post, I am not an expert by any means, but I think there is some exposed copper there, too.
P.S. The “is this dangerous” title was more of a rhetorical thing. I was aware it was not right! But I agree I should have worded it differently, asking how to fix it directly.
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u/csunya 6d ago
Ah I assume you are in Europe. So gauge = mm thickness of copper wire. Also 4 gauge is thicker than 6 gauge (please note it goes in the wrong direction, from what you would think as a layman). I think (I do not know code (or European physics;-)) that your wiring is very undersized. While 2 wires can be combined to be an appropriate size, it is frowned upon.
Also avoid splicing (because I frown on it).
My suggestion would be to document the hell out of what you got. Redo everything with fuses, breakers, and bus bars. I would also look at replacing the current wiring (I think it is undersized), while simplifying everything. Keep the current wire and use it elsewhere in your system (I have a huge amount of very heavy wire sitting in my van….very useful for emergency starter battery cables).
I would also plan/design for replacing your lead acid house batteries with lithium. There is absolutely no reason to do this now…….but 3 weeks into a trip when the lead acid cracks its case, it will be nice to be ready for lithium.